By Justin Feil, The Packet Group
The Hillsborough High School football team had just won its third straight game Friday, but 20 minutes later the mood wasn’t one of celebration.
Neptune’s narrow defeat of Wall cost the Raiders a berth in the Central Jersey Group V playoffs. Hillsborough came up just three points short in the power points system of the eighth — and final — spot, which went to Brick Memorial.
”When you’re playing well, it stings a little more that you didn’t get in,” said Hillsborough head coach Kevin Carty Jr. “We had plenty of chances to do so. I think the guys are playing well. We can feel good about that aspect of it.”
The Raiders will host traditional state playoff qualifier Howell in a consolation game 7 p.m. Friday. Despite the emotional disappointment of missing out on the state playoffs, Carty is confident that his team will step on the field ready.
”We didn’t make the playoffs,” he said. “That’s all our seniors wanted to do. We do get one more home game. It’s one more game at home for our seniors and our young guys are excited about what they have coming up. I think the attitude is pretty good.”
The Raiders have put together a strong final three-quarters of the season. Their 30-20 win over Franklin last Friday gave them three wins in a row. Hillsborough trailed, 20-17, at halftime, but the defense put the clamps on Franklin by shutting them out in the second half and rallying for the winning scores.
”I was happy,” Carty said. “Our defense had its best game since I’ve been here. It was very, very physical.”
Andrew Zitel got the Raiders on the board with a 10-yard touchdown reception from Robert Nittolo. Hillsborough’s defense picked up a safety when it forced Franklin into an intentional grounding penalty in the end zone. Nittolo’s second touchdown pass went for 65 yards to Jared Senerchia, and the two-point conversion succeeded when Nittolo hit Scot Levonaitis. The duo connected on a 10-yard touchdown for the winning points in the third quarter and Nittolo added a 1-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter to seal the win. Hillsborough is hoping it has one more win in it to get to 6-4 this season.
”It would mean a lot,” Carty said. “To have a winning season would be a nice way for our guys to go out, with four in a row, and six out of eight. I think that’s something we can proud of.”
To do so, the Raiders will have to contend with a team that mirrors it in many respects. Howell has a solid program and they like to throw the ball, maybe even more than Hillsborough does. The Raiders defense should be well prepared after going so often in practice against their own offense.
”We do as much of that as we can, especially in the perimeter,” Carty said. “We’ll be familiar, and they’ll be familiar. I think it’s a good matchup. They’re a good program and have some good players. I think it’ll be a good matchup.”
Carty has been proud of the way that his team has come on strong at the end of the year. After a start that had Hillsborough 0-2 and eventually 2-3, they have turned things around.
”We were fairly young early, and we had some guys getting into it and had just started playing,” Carty said. “The resiliency with this group, we have awesome kids. They do everything we ask them to. You could see the improvement. They have toughness. The end of the Hunterdon Central game, the way our guys were fighting at the end, in years past we didn’t have that. And that was when we were 2-3. Our guys in that game were fighting to the end.
”Those were things that forged through the season,” he said. “A lot of it is the character of the kids.”
The Raiders would like nothing more than to send out its senior leaders with a win over Howell. It could also keep the bar raised for the start of next season.
”We have a lot of good young players coming back,” Carty said. “It’ll be a real positive springboard to the offseason. We’re taking this game really seriously.”
